


I'm On Fire

by mamalovesherbagels



Series: Chimney Whump Central [4]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: a HIGH fever, but not until the second chapter, he has a fever, why can't i stop torturing chimney
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:27:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24343498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mamalovesherbagels/pseuds/mamalovesherbagels
Summary: Why tell the team when he's sick, anyway. What's the worst that could happen? (Chimney finds out.)
Relationships: Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han
Series: Chimney Whump Central [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1726990
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	I'm On Fire

Chimney feels as if every muscle in his body is on fire, stinging, burning, and crackling into ashes. His head is pounding, his stomach is churning, and he’s shaking- finally allowing himself to outwardly feel what he’d been feeling all day.

To be fair, it wasn’t THIS bad until the last two hours of the day. It was quite mild at the beginning of the 24 hour shift, actually, just a headache and mild fever. He didn’t say, because, why would we? He never says when he’s sick. Lives need saving no matter how he’s feeling. Just a little bug, he thought. And maybe it would’ve stayed mild had he simply rested and not insisted on being out and about, performing strenuous tasks to heal others outside in the 90 degree heat.

Maybe.

No way to tell at this point, anyway.

He didn’t want to seem weak, or whatever it was that his dad used to say to him when he told him he felt too ill to go to school. Besides, he’s tough, he can push through it, there’s no need to slow down because of a virus.

But now, now that (so he thought) everyone from his shift had left, he let himself lean against the lockers, sliding down to the floor as his legs gave out. He didn’t feel okay to drive home yet, he just needed a few minutes to rest first. He felt really weird… distant, almost, and if he were not burning up with fever, he would’ve had the right mind to call my help.

Instead, however, he laid down on the floor and let his heavy eyes close. He feels heavy, like his limbs are anchors sinking down deeper and deeper into water, until he feels nothing. Because he’s unconscious. And seizing.

“Wait, hold on, I left something in my locker. I'll be right… HEN!” Eddie finds himself screaming.  
Through both his army medic training and the basic EMT training he received to earn his firefighting patch he knows to turn Chimney onto his side so he doesn’t aspirate, but he knows this is sort of the situation where Hen needs to take lead, or Chimney, if he weren’t the one having a seizure.

“Holy fucking shit, he’s burning up,” he informs her incredulously when she races over, having not been able to see what was going on from where she was originally standing but knowing from the urgency in Eddie’s voice that something was seriously wrong.

“Chim?” she gasps, joining Eddie by his side, “how long has he been seizing?”

“I don’t know, just found him like this. Couldn’t be more than a few minutes? We were here with him, what, five minutes ago?”

“I’m gonna call it four minutes to be safe. He keeps it up for another minute we need to transport him, still seizing. It’s a neurological emergency at the five minute mark.”

“Come on, Chim,” Eddie pleads, “wake up, buddy. Wait, Hen… rebar?”

“No, I don’t think so,” she shakes her head, “I won’t know for sure until I can safely get a temperature reading from him, but I’m guessing it’s the fever that has him seizing, not an residual brain damage.”

“Or *had* him seizing,” Eddie says relievedly, gesturing to a now still Chimney. Laying limp on the floor with the balled up t-shirt they had placed under his head to keep him from knocking it around too hard.

“Chim? Chimney? Can you hear me?” Hen asks, and calmly, compared to how her heart is aggressively pounding in her chest.

“Chim? Buddy?” Eddie asks softly, gently tapping his cheek with his finger.

Hen and Eddie have never been so happy to hear an incoherent moan in their lives. (Not even the sexy kind.)

“Hey, hey, hey, we’re right here, Chim, it’s gonna be okay. You’re lucky I left my sunglasses in my locker, brother, or else that could have gone a lot worse for you.”

“...What?”

“You had a seizure, Chimney,” Hen says gently, “scared the complete hell out of us. I’m going to check your vitals and then we’re going to get you a hospital. I’m going to get my equipment-- Eddie don’t let him move a fucking inch.”

“Understood,” Eddie nods seriously, lightly grabbing Chimney’s hand, “you’ve got one hell of a fever, Chim. We think that’s what caused the seizure. How long have you been feeling sick, can you remember?”

“Huh?” is all that comes tumbling clumsily out of his mouth, and Eddie knows he’s still coming to and isn’t surprised at all by the lack of helpful information.

“That’s okay, buddy, just rest. Your brain’s gotta be feeling pretty fuzzy right--”

“Chimney?” a usually reserved voice now dripping with stress booms throughout the station walls, and Eddie supposes Hen bumped into someone else while grabbing her gear.

“Still here, Cap?”

“I was waiting for Athena, she was going to pick me up and were going to go out, but considering the current circumstance I’m thinking it’s time for a change of plans,” he says in a rush, “hey, Chimney, how are you feeling?”

“Confused,” he says in a bit of a drawl.

“I don’t doubt it, so am I,” Bobby nods kindly, letting Hen through to him, “Hen tells me you had a seizure. Were you feeling okay today, buddy?”

“Mmm. No,” he says simply, able to remember that much now, and not awake and aware enough to remember that there might be some benefit to lying about it.

“Holy… I’m not surprised by that,” Hen whispers, gawking as she shows the thermometer reading to Bobby and Eddie, “time for the hospital, now. This needs to come down NOW, before he has another seizure.”

“I got the gurney.”

“Chimney,” Bobby says in disbelief, “why am I just not finding out that one of my paramedics on duty has a temperature of 103.8?”

“That’s high.”

Bobby almost… ALMOST snorts at that.

“His airway sounds congested. My best guess is chest infection causing the fever which caused the seizure, but we can’t know for certain until he gets that chest x-ray.”

“That’s good, right? I mean, not good,” Eddie quickly amends, but Hen knows exactly what he means.

“Better than a lot of other things that could’ve brought this on.”

“Alright, buddy, we’re going to lift you up. We got you.”

“Feel weird.”

“Yeah, I fucking bet,” Eddie can’t help but snicker, “next time, how about you let us know you’re not feeling well before I find you on the floor having a seizure?”

“Mmkay,” he slurs lazily, closing his eyes to try and fend off the ensuing dizziness from being moved onto the backboard.

“You’re going to be okay, Chim,” Bobby says forcefully, “just stay with us, nice and awake. You’re going to be just fine. The doctors at the hospital are going to fix you right up.”

“Hospital… Maddie used to work...at one of those.”

“That’s right,” Hen nods, “your former nurse girlfriend is going to have a LOT of questions for you once you’re healthy enough to answer them.”

“I’ll call Buck, have him tell Maddie the second we get Chim to the hospital,” Eddie nods.

“No,” Bobby shakes his head, “I texted Athena already, she’s calling them now.”

“Chim, honey, you still awake?” Hen asks, anxious about his eyes close.

“Mmm.”

“Good, good. Eyes open, pretty boy.”  
“ThoughthatwasBuck.”


End file.
